Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration

Ellora Derenoncourt
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Ellora Derenoncourt: Princeton University

Working Papers from Princeton University. Economics Department.

Abstract: This paper shows that racial composition shocks during the Great Migration (1940-1970) reduced the gains from growing up in the northern United States for Black families and can explain 27% of the region’s racial upward mobility gap today. I identify northern Black share increases by interacting pre-1940 Black migrants’ location choices with predicted southern county out-migration. Locational changes, not negative selection of families, explain lower upward mobility, with persistent segregation and increased crime and policing as plausible mechanisms. The case of the Great Migration provides a more nuanced view of moving to opportunity when destination reactions are taken into account.

Keywords: migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:econom:2021-17

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